Ambivalence

Chapter 1

Calum Hood

It was Monday morning, my least favourite day of the week, and I was busy with some paperwork in my office, my least favourite part of my job. Well I say "some" but in reality I mean a lot of paper work, I was basically drowning in documents. 

It was my fault though, I always procrastinated this part of my job. I'm a trauma surgeon for god's sake, I shouldn't be sitting in my ass filling out forms. 

As if the universe heard my pleas, my pager went off; 911 to the ER. 

I ran down, coming face to face with a nurse. 

"Triage room 2, Doctor Hood." 

I nodded, thanking her before heading to the right exam room. Laying on the bed was a young girl, hunched over in pain. Her face was blotchy from all the crying, a nurse had a bucket tucked under her chin. 

Wasting no more time, I grabbed a pair of gloves and asked for a run down. 

"This is Madison, she's seventeen years old. Her school called 911 because she was experiencing severe abdominal pain." 

I listened as I slipped my gloves on, nodding at the nurse to show her I understood. 

"Hi Madison, I'm Doctor Hood. Let's get you sorted, shall we?" 

The nurses and I got her laying down flat on the examination table, "Ok darling, I'm just gonna feel your abdomen."

The second my fingers touched her lower right side, she shrieked in pain, crying harder. 

"I'm so sorry, honey," I shifted my attention to the nurse in the room, "It's appendicitis but lets get an ultrasound to confirm and page Hemmings." 

I lowered Madison's shirt and headed to get an IV kit from one of the cupboards, "Let's get you some pain relief so we can change you into a gown, alright sweetheart?" 

I heard her heart monitor start to beep rapidly, immediately making me turn back around in alarm. She was shaking her head and crying even harder if that was possible. 

I immediately ran to her side, "Hey what happened, Madison?"

She grabbed onto my hand, squeezing it tightly, "N-No drugs."

I was taken aback. She was curled over in pain and yet wanted no relief. It immediately raised a red flag in my head. 

"You're in so much pain, why not?"

She shook her head again, her hand still gripping my own, "Just promise me you won't give me a-anything, o-okay?"

I didn't want to upset her further so I nodded, "I still need to give you an IV, sweetheart."

She released my hand, pressing her own to her forehead, "I don't care, just-just don't put anything in it."

While I was slipping the IV into her hand Luke came in with an ultrasound machine. 

"Hey Madison, I'm Luke," he smiled, "I'm just gonna perform a quick ultrasound to confirm Doctor Hood's diagnosis, okay?" 

I knew that an ultrasound without any morphine would be incredibly painful, "Luke, a word before you do anything please?"

He nodded and followed me out into the hall. 

"She's refusing pain medication." 

He looked confused, "Why?"

"I don't know, but pressing a wand into her abdomen is gonna be hell, especially if its appendicitis." 

Both of us came to the conclusion that there was really no other option; the ultrasound had to happen. We entered the triage room again and I bent down next to Madison's head, "Sweetheart, are you sure you don't want some morphine? The ultrasound is gonna be really painful without it."